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Nintendo Will Make Mobile and PC Games!

Huge news, gamers, Nintendo has finally decided to make games for smartphones, tablets, and even PCs. They've partnered with game developer DeNA, maker of many iOS and Android games available for phones and tablets. Nintendo will make original games for these new platforms, not port over their old games. While old Nintendo games woud work beautifully on iOS or PCs, both for players and Nintendo's profits, Nintendo still refuses to open up their back catalog of games. Still, the company has promised to make games using their intellectual property for mobile games. That's right, Mario is making his way to iOS.

It's unfortunate that Nintendo isn't offering their old games for these new platforms. Playing Super Mario on an iPhone, especially with a controller, would be gaming bliss. What we're instead going to get are completely new, original games, made with Nintendo's characters and final approval. The games will be made with DeNA (pronounced like that double helix thing in your cells, DNA), although Nintendo will have some hand in the development process. Nintendo will still make their own games, and their own consoles. In fact, Nintendo revealed that they're working on a new console now, which they've code named “NX”.

It's not all good news though, and the bad news comes from DeNA. Go ahead and look into the games DeNA makes. Notice something they all have in common? Every single game is free to download, but may require constant donations from your wallet. DeNA exclusively makes freemium games. Nintendo claimed they didn't want to make games for other platforms because they didn't want to pollute their own fantastic games and characters. Instead of making fantastic games for mobile devices on their own, they've teamed up with a developer that exclusively makes games that are nothing more than tricks to make money off of players. I've expressed my frustrations with freemium before, and believe it's the single worst thing to happen to the gaming industry besides Gamergate.

We'll need to wait until Nintendo launches their games to know whether or not the games will be good. There are, after all, good freemium games. These games can be played in full, never requiring players to pay, but charge players for bonus content. Unfortunately, most freemium games do not work this way, and as a result, many iOS and Android games are simply awful. Mobile gaming has become a joke among gamers thanks to these simplistic money grabbing games. With any luck, Nintendo won't join these developers in making aful games, but we won't know until they release their first mobile game. Nintendo makes some fantastic games, so maybe we should trust them more? We'll have to wait.